From Escape to Acceptance: A Tale of ‘Mrs. Sen’s’ Cultural Assimilation

Abstract

"Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri is a charming collection of superbly crafted short stories. First book by author concentrates on postcolonial diasporic challenges affecting Indians and Indian-Americans who are trapped between the forcibly abandoned Indian roots and the completely new western society they must accept in order to live. They thus have erratic lives. It is necessary for the diaspora to maintain the balance between these two very different cultures. Because of the portrayal of female subalterns in the new social milieu and the postcolonial cultural identity question, the book is intriguing to read. Notable is how the female protagonists struggle to adopt the new cultural identity and get approval for it from both the culturally superior validator and the male validator.The female characters work hard to convey their subaltern viewpoint, despite their struggles with the painful anxiety of either success or failure as they create their new identities in the new situation. The women characters in Lahiri's works typically take the biggest hits when there is a diasporic shift in setting. Mrs. Sen, the titular character is one such example. Jhumpa Lahiri has adroitlyillustrated how difficult it is for women like Mrs. Sen to establish their presence and identities both in a foreign country and in their own homes, positioned against their husbands. The women characters in these diasporic settings suffer because their roots have been abandoned in favour of a new, captivating world, not by choice, which makes them even more sentimental about their beloved past and their own country. Mrs. Sen resisted the cultural assimilation and tried to safeguard her Indian identity only soon to realise that the static cultural stance will impede the survival in the new surroundings, with minimal support from her spouse. Although she heroically confronts the difficulties of her new life, she is painfully hollow within as she attempts to explain and defend her pointless lifestyle.Her realization helps her forge her new cultural identity, that is the state of ‘hybridity’or ‘multiculturism’.